It’s not an overstatement to say that the sports world lost a giant yesterday. Stuart Scott passed away at the far too young age of 49. Cancer remains a miserable disease, and while great progress has been made, it’s still tragic that far too many people die far too early in life.
Unless you were away from your TV or radio or were without online access all day, you’re already aware of the outstanding tributes to Scott. It wasn’t just present co-workers at ESPN. Past employees of the sports giant who have moved to competing networks were interviewed and it was clear that the sadness over his loss was as genuine as it gets. This was not only a talented on-air personality, but Stuart was also truly well liked by not just the people he worked with, but by many athletes who are usually not especially close to members of the media. That says quite a bit about the type of individual this man was.
I had the pleasure of meeting Stuart Scott on a couple of occasions. One was at a function of some type, and the other was in an interview setting at one of the Strip properties. I remember the latter quite well, but not because of the actual interview. As it happens, he arrived at the set for this remote broadcast early and the two of us ended up having about a 15-minute conversation before our show started.
What I remember about that convo was talking about doing local sports, which is where Scott got his start before making the leap to national prominence. He talked about, while he clearly loved what he was doing, he also missed the more personal nature that often is associated with doing local sports, and how much fun it could be. There was no air of superiority or a big star mentality at all.
So while I didn’t really know the man, it’s very easy to comprehend why Stuart Scott’s passing was very painful for so many people. SportsCenter won’t be quite the same without him. For that matter, neither will the world.